Huskers Claim Event-High Scores in Fourth-Place MPSF Finish

Colorado Springs, Colo. ? The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team set season-high scores on the pommel horse (34.75), still rings (34.025) and vault (37.025) en route to a fourth-place (209.725) overall finish at the 2006 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday.

Oklahoma took top honors for the second consecutive year with a season-high score of 219.175, followed by Stanford in second (217.075) and Cal in third (216.45), while Air Force rounded out the field in fifth (184.725).

Nebraska’s team score of 209.725 was its second-highest of the 2006 season behind its score of 212.15, which it set against Air Force on March 19.

“We are so proud of the progress our guys have made this season,” Head Coach Francis Allen said.  “They have been focused on improving themselves physically and mentally in preparation for this meet and it really paid off in our team score.  They are feeding off each other as athletes and the team unity is carrying over into our overall performance."

Individually, senior Derric Wood earned Nebraska’s highest event finish in second on the pommel horse (8.80).  However, his teammates were not far behind as junior Jason Wassung finished third in the same event (8.75), followed by sophomore Stephen T?trault in fourth (8.70).  Wassung also finished fourth in the all-around (52.50), while T?trault followed in fifth (51.05).

Additionally, senior Nic Matthews earned a spot on the podium in the vault with a season-high score of 9.325 for third in the event, while Wassung followed to tie for fourth (9.30) with Oklahoma’s Jonathan Horton..

Nebraska began the evening on the parallel bars, an event where it marked a season-high score of 35.25 against Air Force just one week ago.  However, the Huskers were forced to change the lineup for the event at the last minute as they removed freshman Jacob Ives who has recently struggled with the flu.  Nebraska instead chose to compete a five-man lineup.

“It would have been nice to have Jacob (Ives) because he’s done a nice job of setting up a couple of our events for us, but you can’t predict what’s going to happen and you just have to deal with it,” Allen said.  “The other guys did a good job of filling in where we needed them and that speaks a lot for this team.”

Freshman James Mauldin started the event with a season-high score of 8.30, followed by freshman T.J. Schmidt with a solid score of 8.725, while Wassung and Wood closed the event with scores of 8.80 and 8.60, respectively.

Nebraska then moved on to the high bar after marking its highest hit percentage of 2006 on the event the previous week against Air Force for a season-high score of 36.60.  Unfortunately, NU’s success on the event was short-lived as it managed a team score of just 34.55 on high bar at the MPSF Championships.  Leading the Huskers through the event was Wood, who stuck the landing to a powerful routine for a team-high score of 9.15.

Senior Tony Burtle owned the floor exercise for Nebraska for the second consecutive week on Saturday with a team-best score of 8.85.  Senior Nick Moore and Wassung complemented Burtle’s performance, each with a strong score of 8.65.

After three rotations, Nebraska held firmly to the fourth-place position with a team score of 103.925 behind Cal in third place with a score of 106.575.

Senior Ray Hacker started fast on the pommel horse in the fourth rotation with a score of 8.10, followed by a season-high score of 8.50 from Schmidt.  The momentum continued through the bottom half of Nebraska’s lineup including a score of 8.75 from Wassung, 8.70 from T?trault and an 8.80 from Wood to give the Huskers a season-high team pommel horse score of 34.75.

Schmidt continued to blossom on the still rings where he stuck the landing of a brilliant routine for a season-high score of 8.55 over his previous best of 8.35.  Hacker also kept his pace from the previous rotation as he notched a career-high score of 9.025 on the rings to finish the event and give the Huskers their highest rings score of the year (34.025).

For the first time this season, the Huskers had the opportunity to end the meet on the vault, their highest-scoring event of the past two seasons.  Nebraska elected to compete a five-man lineup in this event as well due to Ives’ illness, but did not feel the loss as NU posted a season-high team score of 37.025 behind five scores above the 9.0 mark.

Matthews started the event for NU and quickly set the bar high with a season-high score of 9.325, almost overtaking his career-high of 9.35.  Burtle followed with a score of 9.20, followed by Wassung with a season-high 9.30, Moore with a 9.15 and T?trault with a 9.20.  Remarkably, the only score the Husker did not count in its four-score event total was the 9.15 from Moore.      

Nebraska’s outstanding conference championship performance earned it a national qualifying average of 206.76, which should put the Huskers among the top 12 teams that will advance to the NCAA Championships on April 6-8, 2006. The official field for that event will be announced by the NCAA within the next two weeks.

Team Results                            Score
1. Oklahoma                              219.175
2. Stanford                                217.075
3. California                               216. 45
4. Nebraska                              209.725
5. Air Force                               184.725

Individual Event Results (Top 3 and NU Gymnasts)
All-Around                                 Score
1. Tim McNeill, Cal                     55.325
2T. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma  54.10
2T. David Sender, Stanford          54.10
4. Jason Wassung, Nebraska   52.50
5. Stephen T?trault, Nebraska 51.05

Floor Exercise                           Score
1. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma    9.60
2. David Sender, Stanford           9.50
3. Reed Pitts, Oklahoma            9.45

Pommel Horse                           Score
1. Tim McNeill, Cal                     9.325
2. Derric Wood, Nebraska        8.80
3. Jason Wassung, Nebraska   8.75
4. Stephen T?trault, Nebraska 8.70
9. T.J. Schmidt, Nebraska        8.55

Still Rings                                 Score
1. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma    9.65
2. Jamie Henderson, Oklahoma   9.625
3. Alex Schorsch, Stanford         9.60

Vault                                         Score
1. David Sender, Stanford           9.55
2. Dylan Carney, Stanford           9.40
3. Nic Matthews, Nebraska       9.325
4T. Jason Wassung, Nebraska 9.30
8T. Stephen T?trault, Nebraska9.20
8T. Tony Burtle, Nebraska       9.20

Parallel Bars                              Score
1. Tim McNeill, Cal                     9.70
2. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma    9.50
3. Kyson Bunthuwong, Cal          9.275

High Bar                                    Score
1. Chris Brooks, Oklahoma         9.525
2T. Jacob Messina, Oklahoma    9.45
2T. Nate Downs, Stanford           9.45
7. Derric Wood, Nebraska        9.15